Read Scott Peck Numerous Books, But "People Of The Lie" IS UNIQUE A TIMELESS EXCELLENT PERCEPTION Subject EVIL! I Have Recommended Numerous people To Read, And Afterwards People Taking My Advise Appreciate Scott Peck MASTERPIECE "People Of The Lie"! My View ONE OF A KIND Book In How Paints Picture Evilness!
Author Martha Stout Book:
The Sociopathic Next Door: The Ruthless Verses The Rest Of Us: Is Often A Book Recommend People Read Express Thankfulness!
Certainly These TWO Books Are Of VAST VALUE!

This has to be one of my all time favorite books. It has given me helpful insight into human behavior. I have read it at least a dozen times over the years and it has assisted me in comprehending situations that used to baffle me in my personal life. I can't recommend it enough.

“The purpose of this book is to encourage us to take our human life so seriously that we also take human evil far more seriously….”

Parenting
Attributed to Erich Fromm : “…the desire of certain people to control others—to make them controllable, to foster their dependency, to discourage their capacity to think for themselves, to diminish their unpredictability and originality, to keep them in line.” “whose aim it is to avoid the inconvenience of life by transforming others into obedient automatons, robbing them of their humanity” As opposed to “one who appreciates and fosters the variety of life forms and the uniqueness of the individual….”

Commenting on a sad case study: “Whenever there is a major deficit in parental love, the child will, in all likelihood, respond to that deficit by assuming itself to be the cause of the deficit, thereby developing an unrealistically negative self-image.”

Evil
Compares malignant narcissism (a defense against psychic harm) to evil. “The evil deny the suffering of their guilt—the painful awareness of their sin, inadequacy, and imperfection—by casting their pain onto others through projection and scapegoating. They themselves may not suffer, but those around them do. They cause suffering. The evil create for those under their dominion a miniature sick society.” “Think of the psychic energy required for continued maintenance of the pretense so characteristic of the evil! They perhaps direct at least as much energy into their devious rationalizations and destructive compensations as the healthiest do into loving behavior. Why? What possesses them, drives them? Basically, it is fear. They are terrified that the pretense will break down and they will be exposed to the world and to themselves. They are continually frightened that they will come face-to-face with their own evil. Of all emotions, fear is the most painful.” “…terror … [is] so interwoven into the fabric of their being, that they may not even feel it as such.” “ghastly old age” “surprisingly obedient to authority [Putin]” “evil.. [is] a kind of immaturity” “Evil [is] defined most simply as the use of political power to destroy others for the purpose of defending or preserving the integrity of one’s sick self.”
“What we call nationalism is more frequently a malignant national narcissism than it is a healthy satisfaction in the accomplishments of one’s culture.”
By Peck’s definition, Trump unambiguously fits the bill. We’re f#%*ed.
I’m undecided about evil. Once you apply it to another human, is there any recourse? Exorcism? I think of evil as a dangerous, dehumanizing moniker. At the extreme, Stalin was a person who was considered a god or an evil demon. The Terror was enabled by his supplicants. Stalin thought of himself, at least sometimes, in the third person, an ideal more than flesh and blood. He crafted an image beyond human. The myth helped him get away with murder On a much smaller, less violent scale, Trump parallels. His acolytes revere him to the point of accepting formerly intolerable behavior, crimes, instability and daily lies. The people surrounding him prevaricate, lie, make excuses and feed his enormous, fragile ego. Rules need not apply. People working for him are propping him up. But is he evil? Can he be stopped?

Okay, Abby. . .

This book is fantastic. It is depressing--it's about evil people. Remember "The Road Less Travelled"? It's the opposite. I didn't love it because it's happy, but because it offers insight into absolutely evil people. Now, "evil" is tricky--most people don't believe in evil anymore. And even trickier--evil people make you feel crazy. If you challenge them, try to stand in reality with them around--YOU feel crazy. Because what makes them evil is not that they kill people, or hate people, or do anything that we would easily identify them as evil. It is that they are so rigidly attached to their world view, they will do ANYTHING to preserve it.

It's called "People of the Lie" because, in order to see the world as they want to, they engage in self-deception to an unimaginable degree. It's not that they are lying TO YOU, they are lying TO THEMSELVES, and secondly to you. But it feels true because they really believe it.

This book is great if you like psychology, like analyzing people, and are unfortunate enough to be forced to deal with these rigid, self-deceptive people.

But, reader, certainly YOU don't know any such people. Certainly YOU could not be such a person!

Seriously, I don't blame anyone for not reading this. It's sort of a niche book.

As I said in one of my updates, this is one of the most chilling books I've ever read. Yet, it's also one of the most important.

Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck is the first person to really look at evil from a scientific perspective. He ultimately concludes that evil is a combination of malignant narcissism and intellectual laziness, which he makes clear from the beginning of the book. The rest of the book shows some of the cases he used to reach that conclusion -- and not just individual cases, but also examples of group evil like Nazi Germany and the MyLai massacre.

What made this book simultaneously disturbing and fascinating was how insidious evil could look, from parents who deliberately ignore a child's needs and feelings because of how society might perceive *them,* to people who see nothing wrong with "othering" people and even murdering them without thinking they've done a single thing wrong.

I also saw the actions of far too many modern-day right wing politicians reflected in the words of this book; at the end of the day, that's what disturbed me the most.

I wish what Dr Scott Peck suggests in his book from 30 years ago, how to rid the military of evil (he's talking USA, but it would apply anywhere ) would be put into practice; I had thoughts along similar lines, without the psychological reasoning behind it: like, use the military more for disaster relief and so on ...; I had not considered a conscripted military myself, but he makes a very good point why that should be so! Of course, that is only the last part in this very readable book; I love that he sees the Lie as so much part an parcel of Evil, and hence the title"People of the Lie"; and how evil people are often NOT the ones you find in Prison, but in church pews; exactly what I've been saying for yonks! Love the book, love the author's integrity and honesty!

Total guess on the finish date, but I remember reading this nonstop when I was about eleven. All I recall is being mesmerized and terrified about the demonic possessions.

Very weird book. Found this in a thrift store and thought it would be a hoot to read M. Scott Peck's account of "healing human evil" : was actually impressed by the insights and level of detail he gave in describing several case studies of purportedly "evil" patients, which I was happy to substitute in my mind as either malignantly narcissistic or sociopathic (I have met people like Charlene, and it was comforting to get a psychotherapist's take on insidious manipulation, because we often feel like we are the crazy ones when encountering it). However, once he got into the further chapters about group evil, exorcisms, and the Christian dogma, all science and logic seemed to go out the door -- although he was still using the same convincing tone, which made the whole thing downright creepy. He would ascribe something to a scientific source, and then add an addendum two paragraphs later that contradicted it and urged the scientific community to devote research to "evil" in particular. The fact that he kept using this vague term over and over without any expansion on how or what this means in terms of qualitative study made me doubt that he had even really grasped his own understanding of what he was trying to say about it before sitting down to write the book. The whole thing was weird and ended in a lot of discussion about Satan and Jesus. Thanks, but no thanks!

I spent about two years hankering for this book after reading most of Scott Peck's other works. It didn't disappoint. The author has a fairly simple interpretation of the nature of evil in otherwise "normal, regular" people. A fascinating read.

Read this years ago it has always stayed with me.

There are things I don't like about this book, but I started reading it again because I own it and have no other convenient/available book in mind to address an issue of concern to me right now: why people are so shamelessly FUCKED UP, remorseless, and seemingly devoid of empathy with apparently no desire to be better or recognition that anything is wrong with them, even a little bit.

Once again I just couldn't continue when he starts in with the exorcism bullshit. Which in my placebo & ritual embracing mindset I supposedly can go along with a little ways, but in reality when it comes to reading this book I just can't keep reading it. I keep thinking I'm curious about it, but then I'm just NOT. He's just really smoothly full of shit in so many ways.

I'm not sure if I can contribute significantly to what has already been said about this book. What I can say is that regardless of how much you agree or disagree with what Peck is saying here, your perspective will be altered at least somewhat or you will find much that will validate your own experiences or understanding in regard to human and demonic evil. It is captivating and a very quick read packed with references to several religious and philosophical writings. My copy is quite marked up and underlined. I recommend it!